Its off

This little girl has been so patient. For 7 weeks she has had a cast on her arm, unable to get into the water the nearly 49 times we have been. She has hardly complained, and kept it dry while chasing the waves and building sandcastles. She was so excited this afternoon to be swimming with the rest of us.

cowpet in black and white

At the beach this morning but no one swam.

and a goodbye to my camera for a few weeks. Its going in for repair. It dropped (in the camera bag no less) on our terrazzo floors, where there is no give. Thankgoodness it wasn't a kid's head.

like the big girls

M cannot stay out of the mix when there are older kids around. She is imitating them, sitting down to play the same games, pretending to converse with them. So when some friends were over and built a chair fort in the living room, decorated it with flowers, fabrics and artwork, M was in the mix the entire way. Then later, when all was quiet and the big girls were playing elsewhere, M had the space to herself. Making her mark....thankfully not on the couch.

back in the water

Tropical rainstorms kept us out of the water most of last week. The run off from the rainfall was unbelievable. St. Thomas (all the Virgin islands it seems) are very steep and rocky with little soil to absorb the rain as it falls. As a result water just cascades down the hills, in torrents flooding out every low point on the island - which means nearly every road and many towns. This also means that the septic tanks (or whatever is used to store solid waste) overflow and join the party down river. Visibly the water turns from turquoise blue to a dirty red which in and of itself is pretty gross, but when you think of the bacteria that is floating around in that red mud it is a total turn off. Two days later the water was pretty clear and the tourists were in the water swimming...but we had been told to give it at least four days. We did and really couldn't wait much longer. We were all antsy to get into the water and cool down. We hit Frenchman's cove which has some "waves", not good for surfing but fun for the kids (or me in this case) to get knocked over with.

Happy Monday

Her idea so we indulged her.

opportunity lost

lost at sea 1, originally uploaded by blakeislandblog.

A pirate ship sailing around Frenchman's Cove. Loaded down with treasure and crew. All we could do was point and shoot.

Luke

Luke, originally uploaded by blakeislandblog.

We finished the last of the original star wars series today. This past week, C has been playing Luke in this outfit from the snow battle on the planet Hoth. Binoculars of toilet paper tubes, light saber of wrapping paper tube (painted blue), string for a belt to hold his blaster (not pictured) and a lego radio which must be in his pocket.

fresh flowers

*plumeria*

rainy days

There is something about clouds and rain that make a NW girl like myself want to warm up in the kitchen, even when the thermometer reads 80+. Its part of the DNA or maybe nature's marketing power over me, screaming like a billboard sign; Time to Make Cookies! In addition to the rain (really deluge, accompanied with window-shaking thunderclaps and a few power outages) I had a few other impetus for wanting to bake today. We got our first energy bill and we did fairly well with our energy usage considering how expensive we had heard electricity was going to be down here. So we have a little room for baking. Second, a chocolate fix was needed and third I have been reading Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal Vegetable Miracle" and just finished a chapter about squash. Really the book is just a tease for me. I am in the last place on earth to put into action any of gardening wonders she so eloquently writes about - BUT, at the end of the chapter was a recipe for zucchini chocolate chip cookies and we just happened to have some zukes in the fridge. As for the recipe. Its OK, tastes good; more cakey like a muffin, than crunchy or chewy. But the kids really liked them so I cannot complain, because we aren't eating enough veggies down here as it is.

at sea

 

 

 

 

We spent a few hours on the water near our place which is pictured above. Waiting for the sunset that never really happened. It was a little cloudy, a little rainy, but beautiful, and so nice to be at sea.

learning

learning, originally uploaded by blakeislandblog.

back in this space...after another round of technical difficulties! Someone in this house, over the age of 6 and under the age of 40, spilled water on the laptop Tuesday night. Flat line. Gone. Until a few days, hand-wringing, web surfing, phonecalls and prayers later; Ta Dah! Miracles can happen. So a favorite shot from the week. Bubble time.

sunset at peterborg

There have been a few days in the past month where there has been a haze hanging in the air all day for a few days. I had assumed that it was the humidity but it turns out to be dust from the Sahara desert. It blows in occasionally and hangs around for a few days. A sunset out at Peterborg (a neighborhood on St. Thomas) shows how the dust affects the air and view. No red sunsets, the sun just drops below the horizon without much fanfare. We are told that this dust minimizes hurricane development so it has its uses. Its not noticable anywhere but in the air. It doesn't collect on horizontal surfaces or bother your eyes or breathing. Anyway, peterborg is the kind of place to visit if you want to feel as if you are on a rock in the middle of the ocean (or maybe a boat). The cliffs are steep, the ocean is pounding below, the wind is strong and there are few lights around to pollute the night sky.

its your day too

I am sorry if the video above isn't coming through on some systems. Being of limited time and computer skills I don't know if I can get it processed into another format. If it does, know that video inspiration was found at katherinecenter.com as a "secret mission" for mondo beyondo.

Six

A fun day for a big big boy. A little bit of everything was ordered. Waffles, cookies, pizza, icecream, beach time, friends, presents and MOVIE (starwars). A sweet little boy full of play, wild excitment (too much at times) generosity, emeliveotion, willfullness and love. I cannot believe he is SIX.

bacchanal

A day off and out with my brother who is visiting from NYC. We headed over to St. John's 4th of July celebration which was held on the 5th of July. Serious caribbean time. The day started with a street party and dance at 4am (much too early for us) and later in the morning a parade lasting most of the afternoon. The small island had an amazing turnout of talent. Steel drum bands, moko jumbie stilt walkers, birds-of-paradise, baton twirlers, free beer, mardi gras beads (because it is the 4th of July-O). As you can see the colors and celebrating were amazing.

sea trial

Our new paddleboard went to sea today on her first sea-trials. Two daring seafarers took her out into deeper waters. One standing up doing all the paddling, the other sitting down on the board. A little choppy on the outbound trip as they were heading directly into the wind. The sailor pictured below wearing his goggles got real brave and jumped off the paddleboard in pretty deep water (he had on a lifevest). I took it out next and found it hard to maintain my balance paddling into the wind and waves but riding with the wind at my back was pretty nice (and fast -- I was a big sail on top). The water is so very clear and I can see why C jumped in. But honestly for a few moments there I started to think about the creatures that I might not like to see in the clear water 20 feet below me, circling, hungry...but really, its best not to think these things and just keep paddling.

the baths

Part of the British and US Virgin Islands are found on a 40 mile chain of granite rock deposited by volcanic activity. One section of this chain has been exposed to the elements and weathered over millions of years to create boulders the size of a house which look as if they had been dropped from the sky and scattered all over the beach. The result is an amazing labryinth of grottos, pools, caves and amazing snorkling just steps from the shore.  It is called the Baths and is found on the south end of Virgin Gorda, BVI. We charted a boat to take us there and after an hour or more of choppy and rolling seas we arrived and spent a good hour exploring. We would have spent more time but we had a few other destinations to hit and we knew we'd come back. C in particular was so alive climbing and swimming among the rocks. I don't know if it crossed his mind but I thought the entire place would be the perfect pirate's hideout.

read more about the geology of the place and see more pictures here. 

happy 4th

Our celebration started around noon yesterday with a picnic at the beach. This was the second picnic in the past week. The second picnic that was not PBJ, sliced apples and carrots, which is the usual eating lunch out fare we have. This is a big change and I can see that picnicing must be an art with all the planning etc. that must go into it. (things must be kept cool here which I need to do a better job of next time) But we had so much fun today. In and out of the water with friends and an uncle, climbing trees, making sand castles and deep holes in the sand. A few sunburns today with all the time in the sun and this little one got to fly a kite. Our friends brought it from Seattle. Its called a Ready Sleddy and is very easy for even the smallest of tikes to fly.

breakfast at the beach

Back in the space after some hiccups and technical difficulties. We have power outages pretty frequently and our wifi went down for good. Its still down- I am using E's work connection. Anyway we started the day off yesterday with breakfast on the beach. Our first course was homemade vanilla icecream (we brought down our icecream maker) and peach cobbler. The peach cobbler (and cornbread) were the first baked items I had made since our arrival. Its far too hot and the electricity far too expensive to turn the oven on much. Which really is OK with me. It seems that cold desserts are best suited for the heat anyway and maybe I can stretch myself some with learning (and tasting) a bit more about making puddings, ice cream, sorbet, mousse, fruit desserts. BUT it was our anniversary so we needed to celebrate in the way that feels like home. Sorry, no rhubarb, no strawberries...so Georgia peaches were the next best thing.

 

Everyone should try breakfast at the beach. After the cobbler we had cornbread, hardboiled eggs, pineapple, oranges and grapes. Then of course, some swimming.